Wednesday, February 29, 2012

As previously reported, Switzerland's national broadcaster SRG SSR is launching a brand refresh today, February 29, as it starts broadcasting six new high-definition channels.

While some divisions are simply upgrading their existing logos to the new corporate typeface, the changes will be more noticable for the French language division. The previously separate divisions for radio and television, Radio Suisse Romande (RSR) and Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR), have already merged to form Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS). Today, the RSR and TSR names were officially retired and replaced by RTS.

The TV channels, previously known as TSR 1 and TSR 2, have been renamed RTS Un and RTS Deux with completely new logos. The new marks are made up of ribbons that bend in the shape of the words "un" and "deux", which is French for "one" and "two".

The four radio networks - La 1ère, Espace 2, Couleur 3 and Option Musique - have either had their logos updated or completely redesigned, but will continue to have logos that are distinct from each other. Straight-forward marks have been created for RTS' website and two cross-platform brands for news and sports.

The new logos were reportedly created by RTS' in-house graphics studio. The RTS logo itself was created two years ago by Dunning Penney Jones as part of the rebrand of SRG SSR. The typeface was created by Dalton Maag.

Le Sancy is a Chilean soap brand owned by Unilever. Last year it got a new look with a refreshed logo, created by the Brazilian design agency Casa Rex. They have previously created package design for the brand.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

While most Olympic bid logos have been revealed with highly publicised ceremonies, it seems the Istanbul bid logo has somehow managed to slip under the radar. I've held on to the logo above for weeks, not being entirely sure whether it was an official bid logo or not. Bid logos are typically revealed before or directly after the deadline for handing in applications to the IOC, which was February 15. And the logo above could be seen on the covers of all publications related to the Turkish bid, as well as on its website. It sure seems like this one is intended to be the official bid logo.

Disclaimers aside, as a bid logo, this is somewhat unconventional. Bid logos are typically a symbol that fits in a square, stacked on top of a wordmark. This one consists of a modern wordmark and a banner with a traditional Islamic pattern. The banner and wordmark can be used in the horizontal lock-up seen above, but they are also often used separately.

Rede Record is Brazil's second largest television network. Last weekend, on February 26, it introduced a new logo which is a revitalized version of the network's previous logo. The intention has been for the new logo to be more "modern and current". It stays faithful to the 3D graphics that the Brazilian networks have embraced since the 1980s, but infuses some more contemporary app icon aesthetics.

The rebrand, which also includes a bunch of IDs and graphics, involved more than 30 creative professionals.

USA Basketball is the governing body for basketball in the United States (duh). Last week, on February 24, it unveiled a new logo to be worn by all teams affiliated with the organization. USA Basketball says its previous logo was introduced in 1989, and a change was certainly overdue.

Monday, February 27, 2012

On February 14, Italy's new prime minister Mario Monti called for an end to Rome's bid to host the 2020 Olympics, just one day before the deadline to post applications to the IOC. The European debt crisis lead Monti to replace Silvio Berlusconi in November, and it was probably a factor behind the bid's cancellation as well. The committee did however finish the application before the bid was cancelled, and it also created a bid logo.

The logo features a spiral inspired by the Colosseum. A special graphic was also made for the bid slogan, "A time for history". Alas, it wasn't.

Adani Group is an Indian diversified conglomerate with assets such as ports, power plants and mines. Last Thursday, February 23, it unveiled a new corporate identity, created by Wolff Olins. The objective was to develop a corporate brochure to sum up the company's activities to increase understanding of the group among costumers, employees and the public.

Wolff Olins managed to summarize most activities under three headings, Resources, Logistics and Energy. They also developed icons for the different headings as part of a new modern visual language, which also included a custom typeface and a few AOL-ish logo animations.

The Swiss national broadcaster, SRG SSR, is gearing up for the launch of six high-definition channels on February 29. At the same time, its TV channels will introduce new logos, two of them will change their names, and there will probably be some new graphics. This is a culmination of a rebranding process that was revealed back in May 2010, aimed at bringing the corporation's activities closer together. Expect a post about that when more information becomes available.

In the meantime, the German division SRF has unveiled a new intro for its news programme, SF Tagesschau, which also launches on February 29.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Yesterday, February 23, the Associated Press (usually known as the AP) unveiled a new visual identity, its first logo change in 30 years. The new identity system was developed with the New York agency Objective Subject.

It keeps the two letters that signify the news agency at the center. To allow continuity with the previous mark, the new letters have some stencil characteristics, and the red color is kept in form of an underline, "just like it would underline an important fact".

The letters are always enclosed by a "container" in the form of a white square. In that sense, the image above is slightly misleading, as the square disappears against a white background.

The red line, which is referred to as the "prompt", can also be used as a separate element. Another new visual property is a series of "watermarks" - lines inspired by the AP letterforms that can be used as backgrounds and supporting graphics.

Yesterday, February 23, Germany's leading commercial broadcaster Mediengruppe RTL announced that they were going to launch a new free TV channel called RTL Nitro. Scheduled to launch on April 1, it will rely heavily on US series, with German free TV premieres of Modern Family, Nurse Jackie and Chase. The logo above came with the launch announcement.

While the transition to digital TV has meant a string of new free TV channels from the major commercial broadcasters in most large European countries, this has not been the case in Germany. RTL Nitro will be RTL's first new free TV channel in almost 17 years, and its primary competitor has only launched one new free TV channel since the arrival of digital TV.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Bankpension Sverige administers pensions for bank employees in Sweden. Recently, probably this month, it introduced a new corporate identity, created by a Stockholm agency called Essen. They set out to simplify Bankpension's design and message, while also providing advice to back that message up.

Giovanni Rana is an Italian chef, entrepreneur and food celebrity who has lent his name to a number of Italian food products. They are marketed in both Italy and some foreign markets, including the US and the UK. Last year, Rana's food products started phasing in a new look in the Italian market.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

A&O is an Italian supermarket chain with about 750 stores which is a part of the retail group Selex. This week, it unveiled a refreshed logo as part of a chain-wide renovation.

The previous logo, which seems to be relic of the "block" signs that were very common on supermarkets in the 50s and 60s, has been updated by making the squares a little rounder, revitalising it while keeping it recognisable. Four "bars" in different colours have been added underneath, that "give liveliness to the sign and are consistent with the new store environments".

The Malt-O-Meal Company, an American breakfast cereal maker, announced yesterday, February 21, that it had changed its name to MOM Brands. This is a reflection of the fact that it is no longer a one-brand company and that it has grown rapidly during the last several years. At the same time, MOM Brands also launched a new website and corporate identity.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Savushkin produkt (Савушкин продукт) is one of the leading dairy brands in Belarus, offering a full range of dairy products. Last week at a food fair in Moscow, on February 16, it unveiled a new logo, designed by Moscow agency Depot WPF.

The previous was identity introduced about ten years ago. It featured a pitcher pouring out milk in the form of the letter С (the first letter in Savushkin) and messy, somewhat hard to read, typography.

Nova Medical Centers is a rapidly expanding group of medical facilities in India. Last week, they changed their name to Nova Specialty Surgery. The new visual identity, created by Ray+Keshavan The Brand Union, is focused on an 'N', representing "the joy of good health".

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Last Monday, February 13, several tech websites lit up after the Chinese website CNBeta had published some allegedly leaked images of the logo for Microsoft's upcoming operating system Windows 8. It marked a break with the multicolored "flag" that had been seen by Windows users since the introduction of Windows 3.1 twenty years ago.

Microsoft confirmed the new logo on Friday, February 17, with a post on the official Windows blog. The team behind Windows 8 intends it to be "a complete reimagination" of the OS, and that also reflects the "reimagined" logo. Microsoft worked with Pentagram to design the new Windows logo, and the Pentagram team was headed by Paula Scher. Early in the development she allegedly asked, "Your name is Windows. Why are you a flag?", which is a good summary of the rationale behind the design.

Both Microsoft and Pentagram have posted articles with lots of details on the rebrand, and they are recommended reading if you want to learn more.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Smartbox is a French company offering themed gift boxes in stores and via the Internet. Started in 2003, it is now active in several countries. Last year, its visual identity was revitalised by the French brand agency Dragon Rouge. The agency created several detailed ribbon devices to make the packaging remind people of actual wrapped gifts. The logo was given a necesssary cleanup, and is sometimes supported by a white card with a green ribbon resembling the letter S.

Nîmes Métropole is an "agglomeration community", a French inter-municipal government structure, made up of Nîmes, the country's 20th largest city, and its surroundings. Recently, reportedly on January 1, it introduced a new logo to mark the tenth anniversary of its formation. The previous logo featured squares in different colours, symbolizing administrative areas coming together. In the new logo, the squares have been replaced by a circle, still divided into different areas.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Gellwe is a Polish brand for desserts, cake mixes and baking products. Since the start of this year, the brand has sported a revitalised look, in the form of an updated logo redesigned packaging. The Polish branch of Dragon Rouge were behind the new design.

The redesign was obviously concerned with preserving equity. All basic elements remain, but have been refined in detail. The logo has been given a much needed typeface change, but is still highly recognisable. The ribbon that sits behind the logo on packaging has also been redesigned.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Hotels.com, an international website for booking hotel rooms online, unveiled a new visual identity yesterday, February 14.

Until now, Hotels.com have used a red logo in United States and Canada and a completely different yellow script logo for the rest of the world. A press release states the new logo is part of a "globally unified marketing platform", the new wordmark has been implemented on the North American websites, while the other versions are still using the yellow logo. The same release states that the new look will launch in full during Q2 in most countries.

Suhovskij (Суховский) is a Russian agricultural company, responsible for retail and wholesale trade of fruits and vegetables in its region in southwestern Siberia. A new identity for the company was recently unveiled, created by an agency in Novosibirsk called Reklamist.

The "kaleidoscopic" mark was inspired by the shapes of cut vegetables.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

RBS Insurance, the insurance division of the Royal Bank of Scotland, is about to rebrand as the Direct Line Group as RBS are planning to leave the insurance business. Trade press noted that the company had changed its legal name to Direct Line Insurance Group plc about a week ago, taking the name of their most prominent brand, and that they had also registered the logo seen above. The rebrand was confirmed by RBS today.

The clever new mark shows a multicoloured ribbon (a line, perhaps?) forming a shape that contains an "invisible" arrow (direct?).

The U.S. satellite platform Dish Network recently introduced an updated logo as part of a major marketing effort. This includes a new innovative DVR box called "Hopper", that allows costumers to record programs that can later be watched on any TV set in the house through smaller boxes called "Joeys". To market the Hopper box, the company has introduced a red kangaroo mascot.

Dish's original logo has been further updated, making it less technology-oriented. The "orbit", the word "Network" has been dropped and what remains has been colored red. The website has also moved from dishnetwork.com to dish.com (a domain previously owned by Procter & Gamble, makers of Dawn dishwashing liquid).

Monday, February 13, 2012

Lactica is a brand for milk from a dairy company in North-Western Russia. Last year, the brand was relaunched with a new package design to better reflect the natural product and its modern high-tech processing, as well as communicating health to follow current trends.

The new branding and packaging was handled by the Russian agency Getbrand. They created a new logo with two stylised checkmarks in different colours. The packaging is mostly white and features images of people that make the product seem relevant and modern, while communicating well-being.

Joyride created "sexy, curvy" logo with seven movie sprockets (one for every day of the week). The graphics package was built on modules based on the shape of the logo with a dark purple-grey color scheme, making it far more consistent than its predecessors.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Qatar's capital city Doha unveiled the logo for its Olympic bid today, February 10, at a "Family Fun Day" in the city. They also unveiled the bid's official slogan, "Inspiring Change". As one can see, the logo depicts a colourful tree. Purple, the colour of the Qatari flag, is used for the trunk and the wordmark.

Metsäliitto, meaning "Forest Union", a Finnish forestry group, founded in 1947. Yesterday, February 9, it announced it had shortened its name to Metsä as part of a corporate restructuring. The company's subsidiaries, many of which had been branded independently, will now all use "Metsä" in their names. The entire corporation is also adopting a green moose symbol. The typeface used in the logos is Benton Sans Black.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Finish is a global brand for dish-washing detergent belonging to Reckitt Benckiser (RB). In some markets it has previously used names like Calgonit and Electrasol, but RB have worked to harmonize the brand name worldwide.

Last year brought a new look to Finish. The redesign isn't a radical change, instead it builds on existing visuals, bringing them up to contemporary standards. The logo has been cleaned up and the outdated bevels and gradients have been replaced by a more advanced and fine-tuned treatment.

A British article says the new look was introduced in the UK during September. Its is currently being rolled out worldwide.

Canal OFF is a new Brazilian cable channel, launched on December 8 last year, dedicated to action sports, adventure and travel. The channel identity is built on an elegant logo, supported by thematic imagery.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

New year, and a new and improved logo roundup. Now with more links! Here's a summary of rebrands launched in January. As usual, readers are encouraged to post a comment if there's something significant missing.

Humanis is a new French insurance company within "social protection" - pensions, health care and social insurance - formed on January 26 with the merger of two major companies within the field, Novalis Taitbout and (the old) Humanis. The new identity was also revealed last month and created by Bocékozi, part of Groupe Chaïkana.

The name Humanis signals the company's commitment to put people in the center. Humanity and commitment is also reflected in the wordmark, which resembles a signature, an image of human commitment. The company symbol is a red square with a large smile, expressing the fulfillment and spontaneity of life.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

On January 27, the Spanish airline Spanair became one of the first European airlines this year to suspend its operations, followed by Hungary's Malév within a week, and perhaps more to come as debt-burdened governments withdraw support from loss-making airlines. To mark Spanair's demise, here's a summary of how the airline's corporate identity has changed through the years.

Spanair was formed in December 1986, and commenced flights in March 1988. The logo at the top of this page was probably the airline's first logo, a wavy orange-blue symbol and a Berling Bold wordmark. It was initially a charter airline, and the planes had a plain white livery with the symbol on the tailfin.

South Korea's ruling party, the Grand National Party, announced last week that they were changing their name to Saenuridang, which translates as the "New World Party", a name selected from suggestions sent in by the public. Namechanges are quite common among Korea's political parties, this one was triggered by a series of political scandals.

A new party logo was unveiled today, February 7. If any Korean readers could provide more information about the symbolism behind the new logo, it would be appreciated.

Monday, February 6, 2012

The end of a national airline means the end of a brand that has been a source of pride for a nation for well over a half century. The changing structure of the worldwide aviation market has seen the collapse of the likes of Sabena, Swissair, Olympic Airlines and Alitalia. Some brands were confined to history, others were carried over to a slimmer organisation formed to fill the hole left by the flag carrier.

Malév Hungarian Airlines, the Hungarian state-owned airline, is the latest flag carrier to meet this fate, as it abruptly ceased operations last week after two decades of economic struggles. Unless a plan to revive the airline is realised, this will likely mean the end of a brand that has been in operation since 1956. To mark this occasion, here's a short summary of Malév's corporate identity through its existence.

Mr Kipling is a classic British brand for pies and cakes, dating back to the 1960s. Its products have long been marketed as "Exceedingly Good". This year, Mr Kipling has started introducing a new look, created by JKR. It breaks with the more commercial, messy packaging the brand has used until now. The new packaging gives prominent space to the brand name as well as the product, with soft, harmonious backgrounds, conveying a "more natural, home made feel ".

The New Theatre is an independent theatre company in Sydney that has been active for 80 years. Recently, it launched a new visual identity, created by Interbrand in Sydney.

The identity is centered around an NT lettermark - a red N made up of two Ts and a diagonal bar. Applications make clever use of the versatile new mark, supported by single-colour images and bold headlines.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Back in August, the Norwegian commercial channel TV3 launched a new look with a new logo. At the time, there were very few videos available to show the logo in action. The channel is broadcast from Viasat's playout centre in London, which also has a Youtube account where they occasionally post promos, IDs and other snippets. In December they published a selection of TV3's new idents, and they are presented below.

Friday, February 3, 2012

RTP África is a TV channel operated by Portugal's state broadcaster RTP, targeting the Portuguese-speaking population in Africa, mainly in Portugal's former colonies.

On January 16, RTP África introduced a new look with a new logo. The channel now has its own symbol, a map of Africa made up of coloured bars, inspired by RTP's corporate logo. Until now, RTP África has used a colour variation of the corporate logo.

On-air graphics use the bars from the logo to create Africa-inspired patterns. The brown-red-orange colour scheme is inspired by the earth and the sun. The Portuguese agency Santa Fé Associates is credited for the new design.

The Zimbabwean mobile phone operator Telecel has officially introduced a new corporate identity yesterday. Until now, the company has identified itself with a blue orb, but the company now adopts a lowercase T on a red circle.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

VOX is a new TV channel from the Norwegian broadcaster TVNorge, launched on January 23, replacing an under-performing music channel. By offering quality content like American and British drama it hopes to attract an adult audience of 30-60 year-olds. Its schedules include The Hour, The Wire, The Borgias, Mad Men, British comedy and Jon Stewart.

The name seems to be derived from the Norwegian word for grown-up, voksen. The single-syllable three-letter name fits the broadcaster's naming scheme, as its sister channels are called FEM and MAX. It also gets a similar rectangular logo.

The channel graphics have a premium feel and are based on a dark grey-orange colour scheme and modern typography.

Lviv International Airport, located near the city of Lviv in Ukraine, unveiled a new logo yesterday. As the airport is dedicated to a 13th century king names Danylo Halytskyi, the logo depicts a crown made up of five tailfins.

The logo was selected through a contest won by a man named Victor Fedyuk.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Carr's is a British brand for "premium" crackers of the kind you usually eat with French cheeses. Tracing its roots back to 1831, it now belongs United Biscuits, whose most famous brand in McVitie's.

Last year, Carr's introduced a new packaging desing, created by JKR. The previous packaging was relatively stripped down with a dominating dark blue background and classic typography. It was felt this design didn't fascilitate shelf navigation appropriately, and JKR set out to contemporise the design and differentiate the product lines.

Music Choice is a music service in the United States, mostly known for providing a large number of music-based audio channels in digital TV. Recently, it introduced a new logo as part of a brand strategy created by Siegel+Gale.